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Shizuru Kuwabara
Shizuru is Kazuma Kuwabara's older sister, making several elongated appearances throughout the anime. Her name means still current. Appearance Shizuru, standing tall and slim, has long brown hair, brown eyes, and a fair complexion, causing her to share little to no resemblence with her younger brother, Kazuma. Her garments consist of a white, long-sleeved button down shirt; a long, red tie; a light brown, short-sleeved vest; and long, black slacks. She can usually be found with a cigarette in her mouth, and her facial countenance is mostly nonchalant and carefree. Personality Shizuru possesses a mellow and somewhat cynical personality, reflected by her easygoing (and at times bored) facial expression. Shizuru practices a tough love approach when raising Kazuma, causing her to be stern yet loving towards him. In the English anime she refers to him by his first name, while in the English manga and Japanese version she addresses him by a nickname Kazu. Though she usually stays out of other characters' affairs, she occasionally takes matters into her own hands, using the same brute force which seems to run in the Kuwabara family. This type of behavior generally seems to get Shizuru in the most trouble, specifically in several instances during the dark tournament. In addition, she has been endowed with sensitive spirit awareness, yet another of her traits which she shares with her younger brother. Synopsis Spirit Detective Saga In the manga, Shizuru is introduced earlier in the story where she is a beautician that was revealed to have trimmed Keiko Yukimura's hair and gave it it's current design after Keiko's experience in rescuing Yusuke Urameshi's body when his apartment was on fire. Shizuru's following appearance, which also was her first anime appearance, is when makes a brief appearance at the beginning of the Rescue Yukina portion of the arc. In this appearance, Botan and Yusuke invite themselves over to Kuwabara's house to watch a video tape explaining the details of Yusuke's next mission (rescuing Yukina). While Botan, Yusuke, and Kuwabara gaze at the TV screen, watching the video as Koenma gives them orders to, Shizuru enters the room holding a tray of drinks. Though Koenma has encrypted the video so that ordinary humans are incapable of watching it, Shizuru, however, is able to watch the video with ease, displaying heightened spirit awareness similar to that of her brother. Despite raising her eyebrow at the sight of a toddler giving orders to her brother and his friends, Shizuru leaves the trio alone, clearly uninterested in their bizarre activities. Dark Tournament Saga As a supporter for Team Urameshi, Shizuru plays a considerable role during the show's second saga. When Yusuke and Kuwabara suddenly disappear at the beginning of the saga, Shizuru, and Keiko approach Botan, demanding to know the boys' whereabouts. Because humans are not supposed to possess knowledge of spirit world, Botan is reluctant to tell the girls about the dark tournament, fearing the possible repercussions. However, as, Keiko and Shizuru continue to interrogate her, Botan finally yields to their request, breaking the rules of spirit world and apprising the girls on the boys' participation in dark tournament. After hearing this abnormal information, Shizuru remains stoic, simply wondering how the boys could be so rash as to partake in a tournament full of vile demons, though she is unaware of the fact that Yusuke, Kuwabara and Kurama have been forced to enter the tournament by Younger Toguro. Nonetheless, Keiko and Shizuru decide that they must go to the tournament to watch Team Urameshi fight. As a spectator in the tournament, Shizuru proves to be both calm and belligerent, depending on the situation. While smoking a cigarette, she seems her usual, mellow self, unconcerned with the present situation even while watching her brother on the verge of death. However, during conflicts facing her, Keiko, and Botan (and Yukina, during the latter portions of the tournament), Shizuru responds by taking matters into her own hands, fearlessly picking fights (and winning them) with threatening demons when diplomacy seems futile. During one such conflict, Shizuru finds herself fleeing the presence of vile demons, each of whom wants her blood. As the apparitions relentlessly run after her, Shizuru encounters Sakyo, who, unbeknownst to her, owns Team Toguro. Sakyo helps Shizuru escape from the demons, and reveals himself as human. The two share an exchange of looks, as Sakyo reminds Shizuru that demons comprise the vast majority of the tournament's spectators. As the tournament continues, Sakyo helps Shizuru in a similar situation, and the two begin to feel an increased attraction toward one another. During each of these encounters, however, little dialogue goes on between the two, making their relationship perhaps the strangest of the entire show. Shizuru's attitude towards her brother is with contempt and a lack of sympathy. Like many other characters, she views Kuwabara as incompetent, yelling- and sometimes physically beating- him for his poor performance in the ring. Her attitude does change, however, during Kazuma's 2nd round fight against Team Ichigaki, in which the two both sense the inner-goodness of Team Ichigaki's players. Like a caring mother, Shizuru tells Kazuma to be cautious, urging him to remember to protect himself before worrying about the opposition. Shizuru's love for her younger brother is shown when she believed him to be killed by Toguro, causing her to burst into tears and call out to him, though it is unknown if she was putting this show on to make the act more convincing or not, as she had no visible reaction to finding out that Kuwabara was still alive. At the end of the tournament, Shizuru meets Sakyo for the third and final occassion, this time under the self-destructing stadium dome. In yet another near-speechless encounter, Sakyo simply stares at Shizuru, and then tosses her a black and gold lighter to remember him by.Sakyo then gives her a silent wave, as parts of the stadium drop from above, crushing the fallen trillionaire. Devastated, Shizuru cries out for Sakyo, as Koenma, who is also present the encounter, pulls her away, as the two barely escape the stadium's collapse. Chapter Black Saga While Shizuru did not appear in the manga version of this storyline, in the anime she took over the role that Atsuko Urameshi had during the manga. On the night when Team Urameshi was participating during Genkai's test, shortly after the truth was revealed to them, back at her house, noticing Keiko and Pu passing, Shizuru called out to Keiko and explaining that Kazuma did not return that night, the two surmised it had to do with a new mission. Following Pu, the two ended up at the hospital where Yusuke's group went to and ended up getting involved in the anime version of the battle in the hospital where the two had to deal with the disease from the bugs that the Doctor had created. Shizuru had to protect Keiko from the bugs, especially after Keiko was infected, until Genkai arrived to help and Keiko was cured once the Doctor was defeated. Shizuru then took over the role that Atsuko had after these events in the manga. During her stay at Yusuke's apartment, after she learned her brother was being targeted, Shizuru attempted to head out to warn him, but was injured and later healed by Genkai and left behind with Keiko to provide an excuse for the police after Kazuma was captured. Later after Pu died to which they realized Yusuke was also dead, she and Keiko watch as Pu is revived and has transformed into a phoenix and follow him to were Genkai is and later watch the rest of the group come out of the cave. She is also seen with the cigarette lighter she got from Sakyo at the end of the Dark Tournament Saga (anime only). Three Kings Saga In the anime it was shown that Shizuru had gotten tired of Kazuma recklessly endanger his life and began to harshly discipline him so he can keep up with his studies, which he admits to her that he too has been having some serious thoughts with turning his life around. One night after she watches Botan take Kazuma with her, she follows them to Genkai's temple and arrives just as Yusuke was heading out to Demon World. While Shizuru does not appear at all in the manga during these events, she was mentioned when Yusuke mentioned he heard Shizuru state that Kuwabara was working to get into a good high school, which is also something that Yusuke mentioned to Kuwabara in the anime. Epilogue Shizuru is last seen playing near the beach with the other main characters after listening to Genkai (Genkai's will in the manga). Powers and Abilities *'''Spiritual Sense: '''Shizuru has the capability of sensing danger and takes the proper precautions. Trivia * According to a statement she makes later in the Dark Tournament, she is in her early 20s. * Shizuru replaces Yusuke's mom in the 2nd version of the opening credits as a main character and also took over the role that Atsuko had during the Chapter Black saga in the manga, in which Shizuru actually does not appear in the manga during that story arc. * Shizuru was born on January 7. References Category:Characters Category:Humans